Even though Colombia is gorgeous and has many wonderful qualities, like any other country it has its share of problems. For me, it was hard to see so much poverty.
Colombia has over 80 indigenous tribes and these people suffered the worst during the recent conflict with the FARC. The paramilitary would sweep through their villages executing many people and forcing the others out. Families had to leave everything they owned behind, from their belongings and clothing to the cows and pigs that were their livelihood. What makes this even worse is that much of this was due to the rebels, the government and big business coveting the land that belonged to the many indigenous peoples. When the peace treaty was signed, people went back to find their homes gone and that all their land had become a sugarcane farm, or a mine, or something else. The corporations who took their land for sugarcane, for example are "allowing" the indigenous to work for very low wages and we were told they do not get paid regularly.
We saw some of this first hand. Getting to one of our birding spots along the Rio Guaviare outside of the small town San Jose del Guaviare, we passed a two room school. Just up the path from the school was a clearing with two homes. There are forty people from two displaced families living here who are the last remnants of their tribe. Everyone else was executed by the FARC when they were forced off their land. We visited the school and met with the teacher and the kids. All of us ended up donating money which we gave to the teacher. She knew what the families needed and went out and bought an amazing amount of long-lasting food staples for the families, she told us it was enough for several months.
When we came by the next day the teacher joined us and presented the food to the families, giving it in equal shares to all the mothers. The adults were emotional and overcome. The kids were running around saying hello and thank you to everyone--two English words they learned the previous day.
I admit, it felt great to do something positive with immediate local results. The money went to local small businesses, not an organization, and the purchases went directly to those who needed it.
This is part of one of their homes. The house itself is on stilts, the upper part would stay dry during the rainy season. I keep harping on this, because it boggles my mind to think about how high the water can rise.
A bit further up the path there is a very rickety-looking bridge about 12 feet over a river. Some of the boards have 8 inch gaps between them, and the bridge shakes dreadfully if more than two people cross at the same time. Even so, we watched people on motorcycles and bicycles cross it without a thought. We found other similar bridges on our journey.
This swinging bridge swayed with every step, and again we had to move over for motorcycles and small utility vehicles, which seem to be a mainstay for getting around.
Other odds and ends and unusual stuff.
Here in Utah, we have wasp nests: for example, the big paper nests, open cell nests, mud nests. But the Colombian wasps make nests that are very different.
This one looks like a seed pod on a plant...until you get close enough to either see the wasps or get buzzed by the aggressive guards.
And as long as we are talking about nests, we saw many trees with huge termite colonies nesting in them.
In the high cloud forests, the lichens growing on tree trunks were pink.
This is the main street through the town of Santa Maria. We spent two nights here. I think this was the only paved road in town. In Colombia it isn't unusual to find painted tree trunks. Most of the trees in cities have painted trunks. No idea what it is all about.
Many of the trees had great shapes. I can only imagine what fun children would have playing in these trunks.
And looking up through the big ones? It surely made me want to climb. Imagine the view from the top!
Colombia has almost 1900 species of birds. So far we have seen 557 of them. My best guess is that we will be going back again. Wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit!
Our last day of birding in Colombia took us to the Parque Nacional Natural Sumapaz, the largest paramo in the world. A paramo is an alpine tundra, the Sumapaz is around 13,100 feet in elevation. The air is very thin, so thin that several of our group had some problems with altitude sickness and could not walk around with us.
The Sumapaz was fascinating. It is so high that it has a rainy season from March through November. Even though the day was sunny, the higher we got the colder it was, and the plants dwindled in size. Our goal was to find several birds that are endemic to the area.
We arrived around 10 am after a pre-dawn departure. The fog was just starting to burn off showing an other-worldly landscape.
The tallest plant around is the espeletia, a member of the sunflower family. They are an endangered species and have an extremely slow growth rate.
According to our Jose, our guide, they grow less than 1/2 inch a year. Using Kristina for scale, she is about 5'5", that would make the plant behind her over 100 years old.
You can see the resemblance to sunflowers.
Most alpine plants are small, if not tiny. This next group of plants (no idea what they are) did not even rise a half inch from the the ground.
These flowers were larger than their plants. The yellow flower and its plant were about one inch tall.
The landscape was intriguing and compelling. All the silvery shapes on the far hill are espeletia.
A few of the species we saw here:
Black-chested buzzard eagle.
Plumbeous sierra finch
Green-bearded helmetcrest hummingbird
Apolinar's wren
I could have spent a lot more time in this area. There were many hiking trails that beckoned, but we had too many hours of travel left to get us back to Bogota. I'm counting on a next time.
I am finding it very hard to sum up 14 days where every day had so many Wow moments. One of those many moments was comprised of all the big birds. You've already seen pictures of the largest, the Jabiru--huge birds that don't even look real.
I was quite enamored of the Horned Screamer. About 35 inches tall, it is particularly interesting because of the single white feather on the top of the head and the claw on the wing joint.
They do scream. No morning alarm is needed as they start screaming before dawn.
Look closely at the next photo and you can see the claw. I like to think this is a direct descendant of a pterodactyl.
Loved the Hoatzin! These two-foot long birds are just wondrously silly. Wild head feathers and clumsy. Usually found in noisy groups at the top of trees. They are leaf eaters and tend to thrash their way through the trees.
The Black Curassow also has great head feathers, this time, curly.
We also saw many chachalacas and guans, both quite a bit larger than our pheasants. Here's a Speckled chachalaca.
and a Band-tailed guan
I was disappointed not to get a good photo of the Umbrellabird's headdress. Their fancy head feathers grow forward like Elvis's pompadour.
Many kinds of herons: Rufescent tiger-heron
Cocoi heron
Striated heron
Little blue heron
Capped heron
Everything seemed so exotic. Even woodpeckers.
Lineated woodpecker --14 inches tall.
Yellow tufted woodpecker
Cream-colored woodpecker
Spot-breasted woodpecker
Here is one of our paths through the jungle, barely wide enough for one person. Quite a ways down this path we found a couple houses up on stilts. January, is the dry season. The owner of one home told us that come the rainy season, the path we were on could be 5 to 10 feet underwater.
Aha! So that explains the boats.
Behind this boat is a steep embankment going down 15 feet or so to a sleepy stream. We wondered how the heck the boat made it up here. We drove down the dirt road in this photo, but again we learned the road spends most of the time underwater.
Another day, we were able to take a boat down the Rio Guaviare and were lucky enough to see the pink river dolphins. What a treat! The boat we were in was at least 30 feet long and carved out of a single tree. It took the owner/maker (below) three months just to hollow the tree out.
The long one on the right is his boat.
Many of the places we went required that we have an indigenous guide as well as our trip guide. I think 12 of us were on this boat and it held us all with plenty of room.
Even though this is considered the dry season, the river was huge, deep and lined with rock walls. It does make you wonder about what it looks like in the wet season.
Our days started very early so we were usually peckish by mid-morning. If we were on a road going through a town, there would be a block or two lined with shops practically on the road. We would stop and get fruit, sweet bread and other goodies.
Some of the places we went were very far off the beaten path, so a van full of Caucasians was quite a novelty. We stopped for ice cream at a tiny shop in a small village. Two teenage girls working there wanted to get their picture taken with all of us. Of course, we obliged. They planned to get it printed and hang it on the wall of their shop.
In the small villages you were just as likely to see horses laden with produce. Horses with carts were a major mode of transportation, after motorcycles.
An interesting event with cicadas had us captivated. We had gotten back to our hotel quite late. The cicadas were singing so loudly you could barely talk across the table. The cicadas were huge, at least four inches long. But here is the interesting part. We learned that little geckos somehow manage to eat these monster insects. Above my room door a drama was playing out with a cicada and several geckos. Life and death in the jungle.
Here is a little gecko chowing down on some sort of insect...the size I would expect them to hunt for dinner.
Yet somehow they kill and eat the cicadas.
Amazing stuff.
A bit further up the path there is a very rickety-looking bridge about 12 feet over a river. Some of the boards have 8 inch gaps between them, and the bridge shakes dreadfully if more than two people cross at the same time. Even so, we watched people on motorcycles and bicycles cross it without a thought. We found other similar bridges on our journey. 
